In November of last year, I wrote a column entitled Savannah’s Cubist: Jim Cone after visiting the artist at his Talahi Island homebased studio; I am delighted that this generous, likeable man has been selected as Connect Savannah’s Best Local Visual Artist for 2024.
Son of artist Peggy Cone – who showed her work for over thirty years in River Street’s Galley 209, he tells me he has a very simplified vision of art, culled down to three basic notions: “1) You can create art to express whatever you can imagine…and your imagination is bigger than the universe. 2) You can create art out of anything…anything! 3) You can’t mess-up when you are creating art!”
He often recites these “three rules” when encouraging aspiring young artists who are grasping for ideas while staring at a blank canvas, or “wondering how they can incorporate some cool-looking found objects into their artwork, or when they have totally given up on an artwork because it’s not turning out the way that they wanted it to look. The future of art is always in the curious imaginations of young, budding artists. Support must be positive, and roadblocks must be minimal.”
Best known for his highly colorful and unique Cubist style, Cone says his practice grew out of a passion for the intricate, measured drawings and geometry he employed in his early career as a technical draftsman. Later, Cone learned about Picasso, Braque, and Cezanne, and how Cezanne simplified natural forms to their geometric foundation of cones, spheres, and cylinders.
Like the famed Cubists, he portrays people, landscapes, and objects as though seeing them from multiple angles at once. He likes to say, “Picasso kicked the door of Cubism open, and I walked through and went my own way.”
Cone uses oils and acrylics, often applying them with a palette knife to get even more angles and textures, and he regularly incorporates collage elements such as crushed brick, pottery shards, or pieces of flattened metal he finds on streets and sidewalks.
Many of his artworks are composed of paper scraps torn from the towels he uses to clean off his brushes. He saves the towels, tearing off pieces in shades of blue for the sky, or in shades of green for the marsh or foliage.
A prolific creator and a regular at Savannah Local Art Market or SLAM, he portrays vividly colored, cityscapes – many inspired by Savannah’s squares, fountains, bridge, or iconic buildings; coastal landscapes (especially palm trees); music; bulls; owls; the female form; and portraits.
Additionally, Cone makes sculptures and assemblages from found objects, driftwood, and even from the wooden factory scraps provided by his friend Howard Paul, President & CEO of Benedetto Guitars.
During my studio visit, I admired a Picasso-like bull he fashioned from this wood, the sculpture seemingly a natural progression and three-dimensional rendering of his Cubist paintings. Often, pieces of found materials pulled from Savannah’s coastal marshlands form the basis for sculptures that can take years to evolve in his studio.
“Everything that I see is potential art,” Cone says.
“Although it would take me a dozen lifetimes to create my visions, I’m giving it all I’ve got; I am highly prolific, with my studio typically having ten to twelve artworks in the pipeline of production. Various subjects, styles, mediums, and materials may all be in play at the same time on different artworks while I form new ideas, make thumbnail sketches, or write a quick note corresponding to a certain piece.”
He retired from Georgia Power following treatment for a near-fatal tongue cancer. Today, with part of his jaw removed, his speech is muffled and often hard to understand.
A collaged piece called Humpty Dumpty, composed of broken eggshells to represent his cancer and physical brokenness, is now the cover art of a self-help manuscript he authored which deals with human brokenness in all its forms, whether through addiction, or through being financially emotionally, mentally, spiritually, or heart broken. Like Humpty, and like Cone, the pieces have been put back together again.
Check out Cone’s work on Facebook www.facebook.com/jim.cone.5477. Email him at [email protected].
Limited amount of Best of Savannah Banquet event tickets available!
https://events.connectsavannah.com/event/best-of-savannah-2024/
